Patna Durbar: Toughest moment of Nitish's career

The recently-ended hostage crisis triggered by the abduction of four policemen by the Maoists in Bihar, was the biggest test for chief minister Nitish Kumar in his tenure so far.

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Giridhar Jha

Patna

September 7, 2010

UPDATED: October 19, 2010 17:21 IST

The hostage crisis triggered by the abduction of four policemen by the Maoists in Bihar, which ended on Monday, was the biggest test for chief minister Nitish Kumar in his tenure so far.

The state had remained relatively free from major incidents of Naxal violence during his 57-month-long rule. Barring stray attacks on government installations, Bihar has not witnessed any major Maoist operation with a large number of casualties.

The sporadic encounters in the Naxal-infested districts continued but none was big enough to unnerve the government.

Since the Jehanabad jailbreak which took place shortly before Nitish took over, the number of Naxal-related incidents in the state remained far less than states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, or West Bengal. This was in spite of the fact that 32 of the 38 districts in Bihar have been declared Naxal-hit.

Much of the credit for this goes to Nitish who chose to opt for different policies. While he handled the cases of routine criminal activities with an iron hand that resulted in the conviction of around 50,000 criminals, he refrained from launching an all-out police offensive on the Maoists.

Instead, he sought to lay emphasis on development projects in the areas of Naxal influence. He started off by launching the "Aapki Sarkar Aapke Dwar" (Your government at your doorstep) programme in villages which had been the hotbed of Naxalism for many years.

Nitish has always insisted that Naxalism cannot be contained through police or military action alone. This often put him in confrontation with the Centre. He spoke his mind even at a meeting of the chief ministers convened by Prime minister Manmohan Singh two months ago.

This did not endear him to those who wanted him to crush Maoists by force. They accused Nitish of being 'soft' towards the rebels. No wonder, when four policemen were abducted and one of them was killed, he was at the receiving end of his opponents' salvos.

He was accused of being insensitive to the families of the hostages, responding late to the crisis, and not doing enough. Even social activist Swami Agnivesh, who was all praise for Nitish for his different approach towards the Maoists until a few days ago, attacked him. Nitish, however, held his ground.

He refused to release the eight Maoists in exchange for the freedom of the cops. He gave orders for intensifying the combing operations after seeking more security personnel and choppers from the Centre. He also involved all the opposition parties in making a unanimous appeal to the Maoists to unconditionally set the cops free.

He reminded the Maoists about how his government had protected human rights when anyone of them was arrested. He told them that it was unethical to take policemen as hostages to press for their demands.

But at no time did he give even a faint hint that his government was willing to concede the demand for releasing the jailed Maoists. His unwavering stand was one of the major factors that eventually led to the release of the three policemen - without having to swap prisoners for them.

Lucas Tete's killing was a tragedy but it was the Maoists, and not the government, who had to explain to the people why they killed a poor tribal policeman like him.

At the height of the crisis, Nitish went to the extent of saying that the government would assume that altogether 11, not seven, policemen had been killed in the encounter. This was certainly not the stand of a 'soft' chief minister.

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City's date with a legend

The presence of the living legend of Kathak-Pandit Birju Maharaj - in town after a long gap pleased his fans.

The dancing maestro said that the Bihar capital was like a second home to him. "Artists are hungry for love and appreciation," he said. And he gets plenty of that here. But he was not here to perform.

He had undergone a cataract operation five days ago and was in no position to do so. He said that he had come here to bless his disciple Setika Singh, a teen-aged girl from Bihar, who was performing for the first time. He said that nothing could be better for a good guru than to get a good disciple like her.

Setika did not disappoint the legend as she danced for two hours in a packed auditorium.

Setika - who has been learning kathak since the age of 7 and has done her Plus II from Delhi Public School, RK Puram in New Delhi-won over the classical dance aficionados of Patna who saw in her the making of a future dancing star from Bihar.

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